Category Archives: the world

Using scientology parlance, we begin by attempting to help people move above ‘know about’ on the ‘know to mystery scale.’ I have found plenty outside of scientology that explains and validates the sequence of Hubbard’s scale; illuminating the reason for the relatively high position for ‘not know.’ Thus, the Tao Te Ching – a book Hubbard once credited as offering in application all that scientology could hope to attain through its psychotherapeutic methodologies and training – teaches:

The Master leads; by emptying people’s minds

and filling their cores, by weakening their ambition

and toughening their resolve.

He helps people lose everything they know,

everything they desire, and creates confusion

in those who think that they know…

…The ancient Masters

didn’t try to educate the people,

but kindly taught them to not-know.

When they think that they know the answers,

people are difficult to guide.

When they know that they don’t know,

people can find their own way…

…Not-knowing is true knowledge.

Presuming to know is a disease.

First realize that you are sick;

then you can move toward health…

Notwithstanding their seeming alignment with such concepts as the know-to-mystery scale, scientologists are taught to eschew such ideas in pursuing and exuding certainty. And yet it was application of them that led to their own indoctrination or ‘enlightenment’ in and with scientology. Scientologists are plied with a continual diet of tearing down all schools of thought that preceded scientology – even those that led to its creation. These facts necessitate that our first several chapters focus on pointing out the inconsistency, illogic, and even absurdity of some of your core scientology conditionings. Perhaps I haven’t done it as ‘kindly’ as the Tao would prescribe. Nonetheless, I want to make clear the purpose for doing so. I am not doing it in order to replace your faulty stable data in order to become a new director of your destiny, but instead I hope to assist toward ‘when they know that they don’t know, people can find their own way.’ In that regard, the second reading recommendation that I make (the first being The Tao Te Ching – An English Translation by Stephen Mitchell) is a classic novel called Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.

Siddhartha is the quintessential lesson on the virtue – even necessity – of blazing one’s own path. Even if you read it many years ago, I suggest that if you are seriously exploring the idea of moving beyond and above scientology that you read it again. Evaluate your scientology experience against Siddhartha’s experience. Siddhartha sublimely demonstrates that the very act of becoming a follower or belonging is anathema to enlightenment. If in being introduced to new ideas and horizons one in particular seems to be the golden goose that will continue to forever lay you golden eggs, hark back to Siddhartha. Clinging to one-stop enlightenment sources can defeat the entire purpose of the quest. Siddhartha also reminds us that when in doubt or despair it is rejuvenating to turn to and fully enjoy the wonderment of the simple present; the Zen transcendence of doing what one is doing while doing it.

A system of thought purporting to be the ‘science of certainty’, that overtly asserts the goal and product of boiling all of creation down to simplistic blacks and whites, can be seen in the light of the wisdom from the Tao (and even scientology’s know-to-mystery scale) to potentially be the conveyor of a sort of sickness. The resultant awareness myopia – the death of life-promoting curiosity – is held firmly in place by ego and pride. It requires an adopted air of superiority to automatically dismiss any ideas or information beyond one’s own ism or ology. The certainty that one need not continue to look and to search and to find is protected and bolstered by pride in having arrived, having achieved all there is to know.

The disability (or as the Tao puts it, sickness) concomitant with such pride is described in Power vs. Force:

In our discussion of the levels of consciousness, we noted that one of the downsides of Pride is denial. Every mind engages in denial in order to protect its “correctness”– this begets the fixity and resistance to change that prevents the average consciousness from advancing much more than five points in a lifetime. Great leaps in levels of consciousness are always preceded by surrender of the illusion that ‘I know.’ Frequently, the only way one can reach this willingness to change is when one ‘hits bottom’, that is, by running out a course of action to its end in the defeat of a futile belief system. Light can’t enter a closed box; the upside of catastrophe can be an opening to a higher level of awareness. If life is viewed as a teacher, then it becomes just that. But unless we become humble and transform them into gateways of growth and development, the painful life lessons we deal ourselves are wasted.

From a Guardian’s Order converted to OSA Network Order (successor to Guardian’s Office as the dirty tricks and propaganda arm of corporate Scientology):

(Originally written on 2 December 1969 by L. Ron Hubbard as a summary of data concerning Intelligence.)

Our war has been forced to become “To take over absolutely the field of mental
healing on this planet in all forms.” That was not the original purpose. The original purpose was to clear Earth.

The battles suffered developed the data that we had an enemy who would have to be gotten out of the way and this meant we were at war. We, a year ago, identified the enemy or at least his central group. Since then we fight battles first on our own ground, now on his.

Our tactics of offense and defense are based on data. We need data to predict his offensives and counter them and data to use in our attacks on him. We remove his agents and vanquish his troops and we directly attack his central group. That’s sound tactics.

By demonstrating his falsity about us we rehab our own repute. By showing his
sources to be false we get them expended. By showing him to be brutal, venal and plotting, we get him discarded. Our direct assault will come when they start to arrest his principals and troops for crimes (already begun).

Our total victory will come when we run his organizations, perform his functions and obtain his financing and appropriations.

The following is a firm corporate policy of all Scientology entities. It is applied invariably to those who criticize Scientology, its organization, or even its executives and staff who engage in unconscionable and even criminal behavior. It has been applied in this wise since the day it was issued in the year 1968 all the way to the present. Note the requirement for regular, detailed reports. A plethora of Scientology policy mandates that those reports are filed – and as noted in this one, cross-indexed – and retained for posterity (including for potential use in blackmail, see Scientology Literacy and Blackmail.) There is no document destruction policy in Scientology, except unwritten (but firmly enforced) policy to destroy potential evidence when courts or law enforcement agencies indicate they might be interested in such evidence.

OSA Network Order 16 October 1988

Execs

Invest Staff

Confidential

RUNDOWN ON INTELLIGENCE

(Originally written by LRH on 20 September 1968.)

I’m writing to you in the hope that by combined effort, we can bring some understanding into Intelligence.

First I’ll give you a quick rundown on how Intelligence works.

We have two main cycles as far as investigations go. The first is:

1. Some SP near an outer org starts attacking Scientology.

2. The Investigations Officer in that area cables or telexes his senior at International level and starts investigating the person behind the attack.

3. The Int level senior acks the report and expects to see regular reports on the SP being investigated.

4. A file is opened in both the outer org and Int level and the case goes on the CIC board as a project.

5. The investigation is carried on until the crimes are found and it is handed over to Prosecutions to get the SP put in a government accommodation.

Or:

5. The SP* gets scared and shuts up and the Int level senior directs the case to be dropped.

The second type of cycle is as follows:

1. The Int level senior, on going through the files, sees a possible source of future attack and directs an investigation to start on that person or group.

2. A file is opened and it goes on the CIC board.

3. Investigations Officer in that area starts investigating and we get the goods.

4. The whole thing is turned over to PR for action and exposure, or to Legal for prosecution.

Among these we have smaller cycles of action such as, “Get me a copy of such and such a book,” or “Was this SP ever trained in your org?”

At the same time all this is going on, Intelligence should be going through newspapers, magazines, etc., and taking clippings on medical, psychiatry, mental health, government, world finance and banking, oddball self-help groups and filing and crossfiling these to locate SPs. And cross-filing declared SPs in the area by connections and frequency of names, to see who the ringleaders are in that area so that they can be prosecuted for crimes. But an investigation is NEVER NEVER begun until

1) an SP attacks Scientology (threatens to sue, goes to his representative about us, etc.) or

2) the Int level senior orders an investigation to be started.

While Investigations Officers may investigate well, the main trouble is that sometimes they investigate the wrong things, such as:

a. Investigating someone who is not attacking us and who no one has ever heard of before, with no orders to do so.

b. Investigating public who have not attacked and who are more a job for Public Ethics, Registrar and ARC Break Auditor.

c. Investigating some nut who, for example, wanted to buy a meter to listen to Martians so he could pick up radio signals. This one would be a Public Ethics matter in the first place, as I can’t see a reason in the world why we should throw every nut we meet into jail.

d. Taking a request for information from an Int level senior, such as a request for a copy of a book, as an order to do an investigation.

e. Doing investigations on kooks and non-entities who are not attacking us.

Now, we are going in on psychiatrists and that IS a correct investigation so we expect to see reports on that. Reports would also be expected from an Investigations Officer when officially assigned to work on an investigation.

Although the above is all covered in policy, please get this straight with Investigations Officers.**

L. RON HUBBARD

Founder

* SP, or suppressive person. A label applied to anyone critical of Scientology, its leaders, or organizations.

** Investigations Officers. A position on the organizational chart of every Scientology organization across the world; responsible for using such means as this policy spells out to obliterate criticism in his or her zone of operation.

How did the 14th Dalai Lama, Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King attain such world-transforming power? Certainly, not by coveting it. They more likely manifested the following passage from the Tao:

The Master doesn’t try to be powerful; thus he is truly powerful.

The ordinary man keeps reaching for power; thus he never has enough.

By their philosophies and actions their extraordinary pacifist powers were consistent with James Allen’s universe view as articulated in As A Man Thinketh:

A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile, and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. And as he adapts his mind to that regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition, and builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts; ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid progress, and as a means of discovering the hidden powers and possibilities within himself.

Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe; justice, not injustice, is the soul and substance of life; and righteousness, not corruption, is the molding and moving force in the spiritual governance of the world. This being so, man has but to right himself to find that the universe is right; and during the process of putting himself right he will find that as he alters his thoughts towards things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him.

In contrast, given its emphasis on – even obsession with – power and causation attainment, is it any wonder that all the most ‘powerful’ in Scientology, including Hubbard himself, wound up so powerless and miserable?

David Miscavige and his Scientology Inc picked yet another losing war against freedom of the press and of speech. This one was an official complaint and proceeding launched against UK Channel Four and Roast Beef Productions for their documentary Scientologists at War. Of course, only the finest and most expensive lawyers that could be bought in London took up the Scientology cudgel. The results were published in the official publication of England’s official agency (Ofcom) tasked with upholding standards of fairness in media. The Scientology case can be found at page 43 of OfComm’s latest journal. It is an informative read.

Many years ago a story about Scientology in a major publication was titled ‘Ministry of Hate.’ At the time I responded with righteous indignation. Having had many encounters with high level Scientologists over the past couple years, including very recently, I am coming around to seeing how spot on that ‘Ministry of Hate’ sobriquet in fact was, and is. Scientologists are trained and conditioned to hate. They are trained and conditioned to lie, defame, and spread hate against anyone who does not toe their white line; all with an air of overblown righteous indignation. I witnessed one in person earlier this week. Another one performed a perfect example of that recently on the Howard Stern show. Listen to Kirstie Alley’s treatment of Leah Remini, beginning about 33:50:

First, Alley outright lies that Scientology does not ‘shun’ people. Then she lies again stating that she has personally shunned Leah not because of what she has said, but because what she has ‘done’ and because of her ‘deeds.’ Then she falsely accuses Leah Remini of calling Scientology ‘hideous and evil.’ She calls Leah a ‘bigot’ and likens her words to someone saying ‘Jews are evil’ and ‘Jews are a cult.’ All of these accusations are defamatory and, quite frankly, hysterical.

This performance of bigotry, defamation and hate by Kirstie is not her natural personality. She was trained and conditioned in Scientology to act in this immature, hateful fashion.

This is shameful. Leah is due an apology, not only by Kirstie, but by the ministry that taught her to hate.

What is it that makes Thanksgiving such a powerful notion and valued celebration? In studying all manner of philosophy and contemplative practice of late, I have noticed a widespread, repeating thread that might begin to answer the question. That is, the power of the practice of gratitude. To get an idea of how popular the idea is, try googling ‘practice of gratitude’ and explore the results. One high-rated result is a short spot by Brene Brown (who was featured earlier on this blog) that serves as a great introduction to the subject: